By 1897, New York City was well on its way to becoming the metropolis of steel and concrete that we know today. Elevator cars were carrying passengers up and down in the earliest skyscrapers, while the elevated rail lines stretched further and further uptown. It was around this time that photographer James Reuel Smith embarked upon a quest to document part of the city’s vanishing pastoral life—its springs and wells.

This photo shows tunneling under Central Park for the Lenox Line. Unlike cut and cover, these tunnels are deep underground and cannot be built by digging through the street. Drillers made holes for dynamite that helped explode the rock, and then excavators removed the spoil and cleared the way for the shield, a device that kept workers safe as they dug. The shield is a temporary support that acts to protect the workers from falling debris as they chip away at rocks ahead of the shield and put in place permanent support walls behind it. Sandhogs used pickaxes, shovels, air powered drills, and sometimes dynamite, to break through the rock.

Learn about the history of transportation in New York City, and the past through the lens of subway construction. (This can be viewed in its original context here)